MacTech Blog

Dec 23

Mobile financial transactions valued at US$1.8 trillion

Mobile technology is transforming the global payment and banking industry, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). While recent advances in smartphone technology have accelerated the trend, mobile payments have been around for quite some time. Mobile payment applications such as mobile wallets are growing in popularity as they address changing needs of merchants and consumers.

Despite the widespread availability, current mobile payment adoption has failed to take off, says ABI Research. Security represents one of the primary points of concern with mobile payments, be it via processing services or NFC. As more consumers carry out financial activities on their smartphones and tablets, it is critical that these activities are processed in a secure environment.

ABI Research calculates the total value of transactions conducted via mobile handsets and tablets will reach US$1.8 trillion by the end...

According to a new report by Allied Market Research (www.alliedmarketresearch.com) the global connected cars market is forecast to reach $141 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 32.7% during the period (2014 - 2020).

Integrated connectivity solutions segment is expected to emerge as a preferred connectivity solutions for connected cars, surpassing embedded connectivity solutions segment in 2016. North America currently garners major market share and would maintain the position throughout the forecast period.

The final results of the Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) have been officially announced at the ITU Telecom World 2014 taking place in Doha, Qatar. The GCI ranks the United States as the country with the highest national cybersecurity commitment, followed by Canada in second place.

Jointly in third position are Australia, Malaysia, and Oman. The GCI is a joint project between private sector firm ABI Research and the UN specialized agency, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The aim of the project is to drive the issue of cybersecurity to the forefront of national agendas. The GCI provides insight into the cybersecurity engagement of sovereign nation states.

Rooted in the ITU’s Global Cybersecurity Agenda (GCA), the GCI looks at the level of commitment in five areas: legal measures, technical measures, organizational measures, capacity building, and cooperation. The result is a country-level index and global ranking of cybersecurity readiness. The...

According to a new Market Data forecasts from ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com), it will take more than five years for 5G to reach 100 million subscriber mark — two years longer than 4G.

4G subscriber growth was much faster than with previous generations, fueled by the capabilities of increasingly powerful smartphones and the availability of 4G devices. 5G subscriber growth will likely be a bit more muted at first due to the increased complexity of 5G cells and networks, but will pick up in 2023.

"There are a number of commonalities between countries that are early builders of 5G networks. They have a large population, of which a large percentage is living in urban areas. They also have many companies pushing the envelope with IoT strategies. These countries will drive 5G subscriber volumes" says Research Director Philip Solis. "These are the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, and the United...

With growing adoption of location based applications, the global LBS market in the healthcare industry is expected to grow at a CAGR [compound annual return rate] of 31.23% from 2015-2019, says research firm TechNavio (www.technavio.com).

Real-time performance monitoring (RPM) has been gaining popularity in the healthcare industry, as it assists both patients and doctors, and helps increase hospital efficiency. These days, wearable devices like activity trackers, smart watches, health monitors and pedometers are being used to track the activities of doctors, staff and patients.

"In 2014, around 10 million units of wearable devices were sold worldwide and this number is expected to grow nearly tenfold in the coming years," says Faisal Ghaus, vice president of TechNavio. "The constant use of wearable devices in the healthcare industry is anticipated to reduce hospital costs by a significant amount over the...

Work on new technologies that will form the foundation of 5G standards has been occurring for the last few years; however, the formal standards process has just begun, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

The research group says a range of major vendors are working on all aspects of 5G including; Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia Networks and device, semiconductor, and IP vendors including Intel, InterDigital, Qualcomm, Samsung, various mobile operators, academic bodies, and start-ups as well.

"These companies are all waving their 5G flags, although 5G definitions and visions remain very vague," says Research Director Philip Solis. "But this is not merely marketing. These companies are most certainly putting a stake in the ground with regards to contributions to 5G that will leverage their work, competitive strengths, and most crucially, patents. But this is not merely...

Consumer awareness of Ultra HD or 4K TV is growing steadily, and 93% of those who have seen the technology found it extremely or somewhat impressive. These are some of the key findings from the latest wave of Strategy Analytics’ ConsumerMetrix survey (www.strategyanalytics.com), which conducted online interviews with 2001 US participants in November 2014.

The percentage of respondents who are aware of the term "Ultra HD"rose from 39 % in January 2014 to 57% in November. Awareness of the other terms, "4K TV" and "UHD," has also risen but remains lower than "Ultra HD."

Twenty-three percent of respondents claim to have watched TV or video on an Ultra HD/4K TV, either in a retail store, in a home or somewhere else. Of those who have seen it, 53% rated the video quality as "extremely impressive" and 40% as "somewhat impressive."

The debate between individual privacy and public welfare continues to escalate in the aftermath of Apple’s release of the iPhone 6, which gained heightened attention for revealing that this latest smartphone will include automatic, end-to-end encryption.

When an iPhone owner now uses any feature of an iPhone 6 operating system, their communications will be securely encrypted—essentially unreadable to anyone who didn’t send, receive or store data on the phone. So secure is this new privacy provision, Apple itself can’t access the contents of an iPhone 6, even if access is requested by law enforcement. Google’s recently released Android smartphone provides data encryption as well.

While enhanced commitments to privacy and security from Apple and Google have been largely met with open arms, law enforcement has strongly opposed encryption, arguing it will impede criminal investigations and threaten national security. The Ddirector of the FBI and the Attorney General...

Technology Business Research Inc.’s (TBR) 2H14 cloud customer research reports found end users globally are engaging cloud professional services vendors at twice the rate of private and public cloud vendors, indicating cloud professional services are typically the entry point as enterprises make the decision to migrate to cloud and consultants provide guidance and education to prospective cloud customers.

Public, private and hybrid cloud integration will follow cloud professional services growth in coming years, as adoption rates have increased. TBR expects the private cloud adoption rate to reach 85% by 2018.

TBR’s 2H14 Private Cloud Customer Research report shows a shift in the type of private clouds adopted, with a 65% to 35% split of third-party-delivered private clouds to self-built private clouds. It's a minor but telling shift from the 70% to 30% split in 2013 and 1H14 that indicates enterprises are more comfortable with and educated on cloud and are growing...

According to new data from the IDC (www.idc.com), the large format printer (LFP) market recorded year-over-year growth of 0.6% in the third quarter of 2014 (3Q14) with more than 78,000 units shipped. This marks the fifth consecutive quarter of worldwide shipment growth. Shipment value declined -4.0% year over year to nearly $782 million.

"The third quarter is often the softest quarter of the year in the global large format market," says Phuong Hang, program director, Worldwide Large Format Printer Tracker. "While global shipments are ahead of 2013, hardware revenue is essentially flat for 2014 so far, due primarily to vendor price promotions."

The top five wide format printer manufacturers make up over eighty percent of global wide format shipments, but only two-thirds of revenue. With manufacturers like HP, Canon, and Epson dominating the aqueous segment, this points to the maturity of the conventional aqueous...

Video and visual technologies are becoming increasingly important for interacting with customers and each other, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). The research group predicts that by 2017, live video broadcasting will be the new "selfie" and recommends that product managers start creating a "visual" strategy straight away to accommodate this trend.

"The next generation of consumer services and products has one main theme in common and that is video," says Brian Blau, research director at Gartner. "This means incorporating live video or other real-time technologies into products to engage users in live events and enable more personalized communications, providing better customer support, and offering best-of-breed video and TV experiences to connected homes."

Over the next four years, Gartner expects a noteworthy shift from static photos to video, with live video becoming as important a medium....

The total market for powered smart cards will rapidly expand from slightly under US$300 million today to more than $1.5 billion by 2017, $4.6 billion by 2019, and more than $13 billion by 2021, according to a new report from industry analyst firm NanoMarkets (www.nanomarkets.net).

Almost exclusively powered smart cards have been targeted at one-time password (OTP) functionality to provide an extra security layer during consumer financial transactions, and that has been the envisioned golden goose for this technology. Other potential applications such as secure identification (public and private sectors) and medical information continue to tantalize, but have yet to approach anything that would present significant alternative markets.

What we're now seeing is a growing realization that while "EMV" smart-card chip/PIN standardization (named for the widely adopted Europay-MasterCard-Visa standard for...

In the third quarter of 2014, worldwide server shipments grew 1 percent year-over-year, while revenue moved upward 1.7% from the third quarter of 2013, according to Gartner (www.gartner.com).

"The third quarter of 2014 produced modest growth on a global level, highlighting positive but constrained demand," says Errol Rasit, research director at Gartner. "Only North America and Asia Pacific exhibited shipments growth, largely driven by demand from hyperscale organizations located there. These results support the continued bifurcation of enterprise and consumer services server demand."

The platform mix by region and geographic variations in economic conditions are the main reasons for these results. Asia/Pacific posted the highest shipment growth at 8.7% and 7.5% increase in revenue, while North America posted a more modest 0.7% in shipments and 2.6% increase in revenue. Western Europe saw a 2%shipments...

ABI Research (www.abirsearch.com) estimates that 676 million 4G LTE handsets will be shipped in 2015, growing 204 million units from 2014. Furthermore, ABI Research estimates that the total number of LTE connected devices shipped worldwide will exceed 1.89 billion units by end 2019, demonstrating the need for infrastructure and spectrum to support the stellar growth in the industry.

"With the proliferation of larger screen smart devices driving up the insatiable appetites for content and faster speeds, ABI Research estimates that there will be 350 commercial LTE networks forecasted by 4Q 2014," says Cheri Wong, research analyst at ABI Research.

What's more, LTE-Advanced is now commercial on 20 networks in 14 countries. To cope with the demand for higher data rates, FDD/TDD LTE carrier aggregation trials are starting to take place. For example, Ericsson, SingTel, and Qualcomm demonstrated a downlink...

Mobile broadband modems and hotspot router shipments fell 17% year-over-year in 2013 to nearly 87 million units and Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com) expects the modem market to decline yet further by another 24% by year-end 2014, while the market’s value has halved since 2010.

The research group says number of factors are impacting market growth, such as a declining PC market, carriers bundling tablets with smartphones and offering subsidies or service extras, providing lower cost SIM-only data plans, lengthening modem lifecycles, a healthy "second hand" modem market and shared data plan tariffs across multiple devices.

"t was no surprise that USB modem sticks and embedded PC modem modules continue to lead the two year decline, while the continued growth in Wi-Fi-enabled CE devices saw mobile hotspot routers continue to be the bright point in an otherwise gloomy market,"...

A large installed base of cloud gaming capable devices, big brand names entering the cloud gaming market, and improving network performance will drive cloud gaming to new heights in 2015, according to a new report from Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com). The report notes that:

° PlayStation Now and NVIDIA Grid Game Streaming Service will reach nearly 30 million devices by year-end 2014 and will grow 500% to almost 150 million by year-end 2015.

° Game streaming is more resource intense and lag-sensitive than OTT video streaming, so cloud gaming companies must be mindful of acceptable trade-offs in quality of experience and network performance requirements in order to reach a significant portion of the market.

° Primarily to support and profit from backward compatibility, Strategy Analytics expects other major players in the gaming industry to jump into the cloud gaming...

Video calling is growing into a key mainstream activity on smartphones, with high adoption rates in some markets, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). The survey, which was conducted in June 2014, surveyed more than 6,500 U.S. and German consumers about their technology usage and attitudes in order to gain a better picture of how devices are used for work and leisure.

More than 50 million adult smartphone users in the U.S. (about 35% of the total surveyed) use their smartphones for video calling. This number is likely to exceed 60 million people when those ages 17 and younger are included. In Germany, more than eight million adult smartphone users (about 20%) use their devices for video calling, a figure more likely to exceed 10 million when those ages 17 and younger are included. Gartner defines video calling as person-to-person communication using a video application such as Apple's FaceTime...

With the release of OS X 10.10.1 the Spy decided to take another try with Yosemite and installed it on one machnine. Seeing none of the problems he experienced with the beta at WWDC, he eventually installed on three machines--a late 2007 MacBook Pro seventeen inch (emergency unit), a 2013 Retina MacBook (main one at work), and a Westmere tower MacPro (home).

So far all has gone well, though there has been no opportunity to test the fusion space where Mac OS X and iOS 8 meet called Handoff. However, he has had time to view the flat, nearly lifeless-looking dialogue boxes in both, and does not see them as an improvement. Bring back oh bring back my skeuomorphism to me.

And, yes, he did activate his iPhone 6 Plus on the Fido network with a cheap prepaid plan. A month in, he's used some two loonies worth of the ten he deposited. But, you ask, Fido, when it's owned by arch bad-guy Rogers? Well, it is run as a separate entity, and it is the cheapest thing going, until 7-...

Technology can either be a differentiating factor that helps businesses be successful or it can be something that contributes to a company’s downfall. Technology adoption and usage can help to increase efficiency, increase stickiness, reduce wastage, improve product development, improve service, and improve time to market.

Technology is at the heart of many businesses success stories and the role of the CIO, which in the long term view is a recent development, is ever more becoming one of the key positions within a company but it also one of the most challenging.

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) has put together an analysis that collects input from the ABI analyst community and presents a broad perspective as to what technologies should be on any CIO’s or product manager’s radar and should be considered when looking at the future roadmap of either products or internal solutions.

The worldwide personal and entry-level storage (PELS) market was up by 4.8% year over year with almost 19 million units shipped in the third quarter of 2014 (3Q14), according to IDC (www.idc.com). Shipment values declined -0.3% year over year to US$1.6 billion, according to the research group.

"The personal and entry-level storage market showed strong shipment growth in the third quarter of 2014 with 18.8 million units shipped," says Jingwen Li, research analyst, Storage Systems, IDC. "Both the personal and entry-level portion of the market contributed to this growth. The personal storage segment saw good growth in the higher capacity portable devices as well as personal cloud devices."

He adds that, with the former, consumers are looking for ways to expand their storage and backup options beyond their laptops, while the latter, along with mobile devices, address the storage and file sharing needs of an entire...

The installed base for 802.15.4-enabled devices is forecast to increase almost fivefold over the next 5 years, rising from just under 425 million today to over 2.1 billion in 2019, finds ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

"The low-power, low-cost, mesh networking capabilities of 802.15.4 networks make them the primary wireless technology choice across a number of different vertical markets including home, building and industrial automation, smart metering, and home entertainment," says Andrew Zignani, research analyst at ABI Research.

With support from a number of chipset suppliers including Microchip, Silicon Labs, Freescale, GreenPeak, and Texas Instruments, among others, annual 802.15.4 device shipments are set to grow from 206 million today to over 730 million in 2019. ZigBee-enabled devices, currently accounting for 74% of all 802.15.4 shipments, are set to continue leading the way throughout...

A new report by Allied Market Research (www.alliedmarketresearch.com) says that the wearable electronics market, which includes the Apple Watch, is expected to reach $25.19 billion globally by 2020.

Usage of wearable is still at its nascent stage; nevertheless, the dawn of mobile wireless systems and smart phones have sparked a new era for wearable electronics, globally, according to the research group. Gadgets, which were deemed to be just used in industrial and commercial applications are now finding place in mundane activities, enhancing quality of life through various applications such as healthcare, sports & fitness, and lifestyle to name a few.

The industry is being driven by various factors such as convergence of technologies, rising number of customers adopting digital services, and due to the presence of wireless connectivity. However, lack of design features, higher...

Kensington (www.kensington.com), which makes computer accessories such as locks for computers and mobile devices, has announced findings from a North American survey on the security risks created by bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies in the enterprise.

The findings show 73% say that BYOD represents greater security risks for their organization. Yet 59% still approve the use of personal devices for business usage.

According to MarketsandMarkets, a research and consulting firm, forecasts the global market for BYOD and enterprise mobility to nearly quadruple in size over the next four years. Currently valued at US$72 billion, MarketsandMarkets expects annual growth of 26.6% for a projected value of $284 billion by 2019.

Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) forecasts that 4.9 billion connected things will be in use in 2015, up 30% from 2014, and will reach 25 billion by 2020. The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a powerful force for business transformation, and its disruptive impact will be felt across all industries and all areas of society, according to the research group.

(The IoT is the network of dedicated physical objects (things) that contain embedded technology to sense or interact with their internal state or external environment. The IoT comprises an ecosystem that includes things, communication, applications and data analysis.)

"The digital shift instigated by the Nexus of Forces (cloud, mobile, social and information), and boosted by IoT, threatens many existing businesses. They have no choice but to pursue IoT, like they’ve done with the consumerization of IT," says Jim Tully, vice president and analyst at...

The pieces of the carrier Wi-Fi puzzle are falling into place as the standardization process speeds up with the recent updates on Hotspot 2.0 and commercial Next Generation Hotspot deployments counting more than 12 networks worldwide—implementing Cisco and Ruckus equipment, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

The increasing appetite for Carrier Wi-Fi solutions will result in revenues growing to nearly US$8 billion by 2019. Other main market players include Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia, and Ericsson.

Asia-Pacific is the top region in number of installed Wi-Fi hotspots while Europe and North America continue to grow their networks through the use of community hotspots. MSOs like BT, Liberty Global, and Comcast are advertising millions of public hotspots, thanks to switching on the dual-access feature in their massive home gateway deployments.

A new forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that the transition to the 3rd Platform is having a direct impact on datacenter construction and remodeling.

IDC (www.idc.com) expects the total number of datacenters (all types) deployed worldwide will peak at 8.6 million in 2017 and then begin to decline slowly. This shift will be triggered by a decline in internal datacenter server rooms starting in 2016 and internal server closets starting in 2017.

All other datacenter categories will continue to grow throughout the forecast period, with the number of service provider datacenters increasing much faster. Despite a decline in the number of datacenters, total worldwide datacenter space will continue to increase, growing from 1.58 billion square feet in 2013 to 1.94 billion square feet in 2018.

The datacenter and server rooms/closets are no longer just the places where organizations house their...

ABI Research's latest data forecasts North American activity will drive the overall in-building wireless market while Europe and Asia-Pacific pick up the pace by 2016. The market for in-building wireless equipment and deployments will nearly double the current outlook by 2019.

North America will continue to be the region with maximum DAS spend with sports venues, transportation and healthcare continuing to be the verticals which attract the most DAS investment while shopping malls and hospitality will rank a close second place, according to ABI Research. Together these verticals in North America account for about two-thirds of DAS spending. North America is followed by Asia-Pacific and then Europe for market size.

"While the Asia-Pacific region today accounts for less than a quarter of the total market, ABI Research expects it to exceed that by 2019 at a compound annual growth rate of more than 20%," says Nick Marshall, Research Director at ABI Research. "The activity...

New data from ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) analyzes how ROS—open source software libraries, tools, and a run-time environment—reduces the complexity of robotics software engineering, increases the speed of development and deployment, as well as improves the robustness and maintainability of the resulting systems.

The report describes the components of the ROS framework, characterizes the adoption rate of ROS and the current state of ROS Industrial—ROS-based solutions for industrial robotics technology—and provides examples of commercial systems currently employing ROS and estimates for future growth. The current limitations of ROS, and how they are being addressed, including in future versions of ROS and new ROS initiatives, is also analyzed.

"The complexity, difficulty, and glacial pace of robotics software development has stifled robotics innovation and slowed the rate of commercialization...

Over 450 million households worldwide currently have Wi-Fi networks set up in 2014, a 5% increase from 2013 according to Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com)

"Contrary to common perception, not all consumers have embraced Wi-Fi networks in their homes despite the fact that global connected devices per household stand at 5.5 in 2014 – Wi-Fi router adoption in fixed-line broadband households still has much room to grow globally," says analyst Eric Smith. "As Wi-Fi technologies continue to advance, prices fall, and the technology becomes more familiar to the average consumer, nearly 80% of fixed-line broadband households will have established Wi-Fi networks by 2018."

Jason Blackwell, director of Service Provider Strategies at Strategy Analytics, adds: "Broadband penetration in developed markets is reaching saturation point and emerging markets face infrastructure costs in expanding...

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) forecasts that Bluetooth Low Energy will dominate wearable connectivity by 2015 with a 33% share of the market, as consumers struggle to justify the added tariff cost and remain happy to rely on their smartphone as the central hub.

While the wearable use case remains nascent and unproven to the average consumer, price, battery life and component size constraints affect the viability of wearable devices having a wide area network connection.

"Wearables are not about the consumption of content, because of the small size of the screens found on most devices within this category. Wearables are about the quantified self, more than likely, communicated via Bluetooth to a smartphone to view the results and then possibly from there to a cloud-based service for aggregation and further analysis," says Nick Spencer, senior practice director, Mobile Devices at ABI Research....

According to a new report from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) approximately two-thirds of U.S. broadband households are unfamiliar with smart home products or services. Further, few consumers know what smart home devices and services are, who sells them, or where to buy them.

Parks Associates with the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) analyzed the results of a Q2 2014 survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households. The results include recommendations for the connected home industry, analysis of consumer demand for smart home products, and strategies to raise awareness of smart home devices and their sales channels.

"Today, smart home service providers control almost every aspect of their offerings while consumers make only one choice - the service provider," says Tricia Parks, CEO and Founder, Parks Associates. "Deploying open solutions that give consumers a degree of control...

Jumsoft (http://www.jumsoft.com) has upgraded Money, its finance and budgeting application for Mac OS X, to version 4.6 features a number of interface and functionality improvements designed for full compatibility with OS X Yosemite.

Money provides small businesses and home users with a tool to track their finances. Version 4.6 includes various fixes of the CSV export functionality, improved data downloads from Bank of America, French localization improvements, and other minor fixes and refinements.

Money requires Mac OS X 10.7 or higher. It costs US$38.99 and is available worldwide through the Mac App Store in the Finance category.

The independent ad technology market is explosive, showing 52% annual growth from 2011 through 2014, with nearly a US$6 billion expected market size in 2014. In addition to revenue growth, the pace of acquisition has been frantic, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Acquisitions from publishers reduces the independence of providers, although they continue to have public platforms. Some of the major recent publisher-acquisitions have included Facebook (LiveRail), Twitter (MoPub), Yahoo (Flurry), AOL (Adap.tv) and Comcast (FreeWheel), with strong focus on bringing ad technology in-house.

In addition, consolidation among independents, such as Ooyala’s just announced acquisition of Videoplaza continues to change the landscape. Adobe and Criteo lead this space, with 17% and 15% market share, respectively. Adobe’s advertising business was built from the Omniture acquisition, with additional...

After a tumultuous first half of the year and unremarkable back-to-school results, U.S. retailers have emerged with an optimistic outlook for the upcoming holiday season. According to a recent BDO USA survey (http://bdo.com), chief marketing officers (CMOs) at leading U.S. retailers forecast a solid 4.1%increase in overall holiday store sales.

This year’s projection falls directly in line with the National Retail Federation’s 4.1% expected increase in holiday sales, and is a full percentage point higher than actual retail sales gains in the 2013 season. Overall, a majority (65%) of retailers believe sales will increase this year, with only 12% expecting a sales decrease. The increased optimism in growth likely points to ongoing improvements in the broader economy: housing markets are recovering, the employment picture is slowly rebounding and consumer confidence is rising, though still volatile.

The market for connected LED or “smart” light bulbs is in its embryonic stage of development, with shipments totaling fewer than 2.5 million units in 2013.

However, falling LED prices and the endorsement of ZigBee Light Link as the preferred connectivity solution by a number of leading lighting manufacturers means that annual smart bulb shipments are set to increase to 223 million by 2020, achieving a total installed base of over 400 million, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

"Because of the additional dimensions smart lighting brings to the consumer lifestyle, including lighting automation, and because of its carbon footprint efficiency, this industry will rapidly become one of the key technologies that could bring IoE closer to consumers," Malik Saadi, practice director at the research company. "Because of the additional dimensions smart lighting brings to the consumer lifestyle,...

Public IT cloud services spending will reach US$56.6 billion in 2014 and grow to more than $127 billion in 2018, according to a new forecast from International Data Corporation (www.idc.com), which is about six times the rate of growth for the overall IT market. In 2018, public IT cloud services will account for more than half of worldwide software, server, and storage spending growth.

Among the factors driving public IT cloud services growth is the adoption of "cloud first" strategies by both IT vendors expanding their offerings and IT buyers implementing new solutions. More importantly, IDC believes the cloud services market is now entering an "innovation stage" that will produce an explosion of new solutions and value creation on top of the cloud.

Many of these new solutions will be in industry-focused platforms with their own innovation communities, which will reshape not only how companies operate their IT,...

Standards committees and industry consortiums are working through a number of video standards to support UltraHD video as well as the next-generation of mobile video services, such as HEVC and DASH packaging, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

However, some pain points remain unaddressed by the majority of vendors going in predictable directions; meanwhile, a few trailblazers are working on disruptive innovations, says the research group. Areas such as the inability of TCP delivery to keep up with high throughput demands, the lack of perceptual tools in modern codecs, as well as the inefficiency of storage within CDNs all pose significant additional challenges within the ecosystem. A number of innovative companies, from startups to more mature businesses, are addressing these issues: bitmovin, beamr, Akamai, Aspera (part of IBM), Vantrix, and Conviva.

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) says that mobile phone accessories in the aftermarket will generate revenues of US$51.1 billion by the end of 2014.

Protective carry cases continue to generate the highest revenues and shipment numbers (US$13 billion and 556,855,035 respectively) with additional chargers and memory cards among the other major contributing product categories.

"Consumers are seeking additional protection for their smartphones, with most modern devices coming with larger screens and therefore more susceptibility to damage if dropped or carried in a pocket unprotected," says Thomas McCourtie, research analyst at ABI Research. Some protective cases also offer compartments to store debit and credit cards, and with an increasing number of consumers opting to pay for goods and services via contactless payment systems, there is more of an incentive to carry all essential items (phone and...

New research from the Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) research group shows the average U.S. broadband household now watches more than 17 hours of non-linear video per week, compared to 11.5 hours of linear video.

"Non-linear video accounts for 49% of the video consumed on the TV, and it is already the majority, 60%, of TV video viewed by consumers 18-24," said Barbara Kraus, director of research, Parks Associates. "Growing consumer demand, alongside new OTT service announcements from HBO and CBS, is driving all players in the video ecosystem to add streaming capabilities to their devices."

Parks Associates research shows consumers are also using connected CE for purposes outside video. Nearly 40% of U.S. broadband households that use the smart TV as their primary connected device regularly access and spend at least one hour per week using Facebook on this device.

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) says that 64% of U.S. broadband households have an Internet-connected CE (consumer electronic) device and 55% have an OTT [over-the-top] service subscription. This is an area poised for strong growth following HBO's announcement that it will launch a stand-alone HBO Go service, notes the research group.

"The HBO OTT service announcement should not really be a surprise given the overall trends in the video service space," said Brett Sappington, director, research, Parks Associates. "HBO has been aggressive in the online space for some time, first testing a direct-to-consumer approach in Europe through HBO Nordic, its OTT video service offering. Competition in this space is set to increase massively as pay-TV providers, broadcasters, cable networks, and other content producers introduce new OTT services. In our research reports, we analyze the...

Chromebook shipments increased by 67% QoQ [quarter-over-quarter] and are projected to double in size YoY [year-over-year], according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Acer continues to maintain its lead over other vendors in the market, including Samsung, HP, and Dell. The top three leading vendors – Acer, Samsung, and HP – accounted for 74% shipment share during the first half of 2014 and are forecasted to maintain market control through the second half of the year, according to quarterly data from the research group.

"Consumers are hungry for a product that is cost effective but also provides the versatility and functionality of a laptop," says ABI Research Analyst Stephanie Van Vactor. "The growth of the Chromebook market demonstrates a niche that is gaining traction among consumers."

The questionable need of Chromebooks by consumers contributed to the slow start of these devices;...

The dominance of touchscreen user interfaces will reduce over the next five years as more sensors are introduced to mainstream products and entirely new product form-factors emerge, enabling and necessitating new user interfaces like voice, gesture, eye-tracking, and neural, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com.

"Touch got mobile device usability to where it is today, but touch will become one of many interfaces for future devices as well as for new and future markets," says ABI Research Senior Practice Director Jeff Orr. "The really exciting opportunity arrives when multiple user interfaces are blended together for entirely new experiences."

Across 11 unique features from wireless connectivity to embedded sensors, ABI Research found that hand and facial gesture recognition will experience the greatest growth in future smartphone and tablet shipments with a compound annual growth rate of 30...

Approximately 40% of U.S. consumers who work for large enterprises said they use their personally owned smartphone, desktop or laptop daily for some form of work purposes, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

The study, which was conducted in June 2014, surveyed more than 4,300 U.S. consumers about their technology usage and attitudes in order to gain a better picture of how devices are used for work and leisure.

"The lines between work and play are becoming more and more blurred as employees choose to 'use their own device' for work purposes whether sanctioned by an employer or not," said Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Devices that were once bought purely for personal use are increasingly being used for work and technology vendors and service providers need to respond to this."

More than 20 million on-cell TFT LCD touch panels shipped globally in 1H’14, after only 4.7 million were shipped in all of 2013, as the technology has been adopted in the expanding entry-level and mid-range smartphones market. By 2018, according to the latest NPD DisplaySearch (www.displaysearch.com) data, shipments of on-cell TFT LCD panels are expected to reach 129 million.

Embedded touch panels of all types, including in-cell and on-cell TFT LCDs, as well as on-cell AMOLED panels, accounted for 20% of all mobile phone displays in 2012, 29% in 2013, and an expected 32% in 2014.

"Overall the total embedded touch panel display market is expected to grow. However, individual manufacturer shipment shares still depend on Apple and Samsung, since they are the biggest customers for in-cell TFT LCDs and on-cell AMOLED panels," says Calvin Hsieh, research director at NPD DisplaySearch. Other brands...

However terabytes sold in Q2 2014 saw a double digit year-on-year growth due to decrease in dollar per gigabyte and is allowing the terabyte sold to grow irrespective of the revenue de-growth, says IDC. Q2 2014 witnessed a declining trend majorly due to slow movement of deals and vendor's focus on technologies like compression and de-duplication that is making the traditional storage more efficient, notes the research group.

The market is expected to revive in the coming quarters due to the positive business sentiment, investment announcements from the government and rising demand from the SMB segment particularly. Growing volume of data is pushing organizations to revisit...

Insurance industry IT managers in the UK plan to put their desktops on "diets" over the next 24 months. Research by IGEL Technology (http://tinyurl.com/pfxatqh), shows that thin and zero client adoption will increase by 19%.

Flexibility, security and speed of deployment are the main advantages of deploying thin client devices, according to the managers. Of the insurance companies recently surveyed, 78% currently run a centralized IT infrastructure. Eighty percent of these organizations have at least some thin or zero client desktops deployed.

While PCs still dominate the desktop landscape (they're at 42%), thin and zero client deployment has risen to 20%. Other players in the arena are notebooks—23% of users prefer these—and tablets with 19% of the user base. According to the managers running insurance industry IT departments, however, thin clients will rise to 39% of desktops within two...

Securing the Internet of Things (IoT) is going to be a considerable challenge in the next decade, not least because the security implications are more varied than for traditional IT settings, according to ABI Research (www.abirsearch.com).

New variables come into play, including safety considerations, consumer privacy, and data protection. Media coverage has hyped the advent of hacked toilets and spammer fridges, but the underlying trend is worrying because it highlights the fact that secure product development is not the norm for connected things.

The IoT is subject to numerous vulnerabilities at all of its core layers: perception, network, and application. The balance between cost and risk often means Things are less likely to employ more complex, resource-intensive security, such as access control and authentication.

"Some of these issues will be addressed at the gateway level or at the...

New data from the Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) research group says 37% of U.S. broadband households regularly use transactional services for OTT [over the top] video, such as online video rentals and downloads.

The vast majority of consumers making these a la carte purchases also have a streaming video subscription, emphasizing the potential role of transactional services to supplement subscription OTT. For example, approximately two-thirds of Amazon Instant Video subscribers also rent or purchase titles through the service, and their average expenditures are increasing. By contrast, expenditure on downloads among Netflix subscribers is decreasing.

"Subscription services are the most popular form of OTT video, but a transactional service that offers a wide selection of titles and easy-to-use controls can score with consumers and create new revenues," says Barbara Kraus,...

Makers and startups, not tech providers, consumer goods companies or enterprises, will drive acceptance, use and growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) through the creation of a multitude of niche applications, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). The research group predicts that, by 2017, 50% of IoT solutions (typically a product combined with a service) will originate in startups that are less than three years old.

Gartner defines "makers" as inventors, tinkerers and entrepreneurs who create and manufacture products using traditional tools and new digital design and rapid prototyping and manufacturing technologies. "Startups" are fledgling businesses that are often technology-focused and have the potential for high growth.

"Conventional wisdom is that the growth of the Internet of Things is driven by large enterprises. As is always the case, there is an element of truth in conventional wisdom and...

“Mobile device hardware, software, and usage have developed at an incredible rate in recent years, from network speeds, to screen resolution and size, to processing power," says Nick Spencer, senior practice director with the research group. "End user’s reliance on their smartphones also grows and grows, with mobile data usage experiencing exponential growth. One crucial part of the overall solution, battery life and charging technology, has been a laggard to date. Short battery life remains the biggest irritation to smartphone users and is a clear opportunity for handset vendors and carriers to improve the user experience by adopting new, longer-...

Software Updates via MacUpdate

Vienna 3.0.6 :5eaf312: - RSS and Atom ne...

Vienna is a freeware and Open-Source RSS/Atom newsreader with article storage and management via a SQLite database, written in Objective-C and Cocoa, for the OS X operating system. It provides... Read more

Kodi 15.1.rc1 - Powerful media center to...

Kodi (was XBMC) is an award-winning free and open-source (GPL) software media player and entertainment hub that can be installed on Linux, OS X, Windows, iOS, and Android, featuring a 10-foot user... Read more

Bookends 12.5.8 - Reference management a...

Bookends is a full-featured bibliography/reference and information-management system for students and professionals.
Access the power of Bookends directly from Mellel, Nisus Writer Pro, or MS Word (... Read more

Chromium 44.0.2403.125 - Fast and stable...

Chromium is an open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web.
Version 44.0.2403.125:
This release contains a number... Read more

iMazing 1.2.2 - Complete iOS device mana...

iMazing (was DiskAid) is the ultimate iOS device manager with capabilities far beyond what iTunes offers. With iMazing and your iOS device (iPhone, iPad, or iPod), you can:
Copy music to and from... Read more

Audio Hijack 3.2.0 - Record and enhance...

Audio Hijack (was Audio Hijack Pro) drastically changes the way you use audio on your computer, giving you the freedom to listen to audio when you want and how you want. Record and enhance any audio... Read more

FontExplorer X Pro 5.0.1 - Font manageme...

FontExplorer X Pro is optimized for professional use; it's the solution that gives you the power you need to manage all your fonts.
Now you can more easily manage, activate and organize your... Read more

Calcbot 1.0.2 - Intelligent calculator a...

Calcbot is an intelligent calculator and unit converter for the rest of us. Featuring an easy-to-read history tape, expression view, intuitive conversion, and much more!
Features
History Tape -... Read more

MTR 5.0.0.1 - The Mac's oldest and...

MTR (was MacTheRipper)--the Mac's oldest and smartest DVD-backup app--is now updated to version 5.001
MTR -- the complete toolbox, not a one-trick, point-and-click extractor. MTR is intended for... Read more

LibreOffice 4.4.5.2 - Free, open-source...

LibreOffice is an office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, drawing tool) compatible with other major office suites. The Document Foundation is coordinating development and... Read more

Bandai Namco has released Pac-Man Championship Edition DX on iOS and Android, which features the classic arcade gameplay that we've all grown to love.
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX can be enjoyed in much shorter bursts than the arcade versions... | Read more »

Angel Stone is Fincon's follow up to the massively successful Hello Hero and is out now on iOS and Android.
You play as a member of The Resistance, a group of mighty human warriors who have risen up in defiance of the Demon horde threatening to... | Read more »

The not exactly rumors were true and the birds are back. Angry Birds 2 has come to the App Store and the world will... well I suppose it'll still be the same, but now we have more bird-flinging options!
[Read more]
| Read more »

You Could Design Your Own Card for Chain...

If you've ever wanted to create your own item, weapon, trap, or even monster for Chainsaw Warrior: Lords of the Night, this is your chance. Auroch Digital is currently holding a contest so that fans can fight to the death (not really) to see which... | Read more »

Bitcoin Billionaire is Going Back in Tim...

If you thought you managed to buy everything there is to buy in Bitcoin Billionaire and make all the money, well you though wrong. Those of you who made it far enough might remember investing in time travel - and it looks like that investment is... | Read more »

Domino Drop (Games)

Domino Drop 1.0
Device: iOS Universal
Category: Games
Price: $1.99, Version: 1.0 (iTunes)
Description:
Domino Drop is a delightful new puzzle game with dominos and gravity!Learn how to play it in a minute, master it day by day.Your... | Read more »

Best Buy has iPad Air 2s on sale for up to $100 off MSRP on their online store for a limited time. Choose free shipping or free local store pickup (if available). Sale prices available for online... Read more

B&H Photo has the 13″ 1.6GHz/128GB MacBook Air on sale for $899.99 including free shipping plus NY tax only. Their price is $100 off MSRP, and it’s the lowest price available for this model.... Read more

Worldwide Tablet Market Decline Continues, Ap...

The worldwide tablet market declined -7.0% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2015 (2Q15) with shipments totaling 44.7 million units according to preliminary data from the International Data... Read more

The Apple Store has Apple Certified Refurbished iPad Air 2s available for up to $140 off the price of new models. Apple’s one-year warranty is included with each model, and shipping is free:
- 128GB... Read more

Updated Apple iPad Price Trackers

We’ve updated our iPad Air Price Tracker and our iPad mini Price Tracker with the latest information on prices and availability from Apple and other resellers.
Read more

Apple refurbished 2014 13-inch 128GB MacBook...

The Apple Store has Apple Certified Refurbished 2014 13″ MacBook Airs available starting at $759. An Apple one-year warranty is included with each MacBook, and shipping is free:
- 13″ 1.4GHz/128GB... Read more

Apple’s Education discount saves up to $300 o...

Purchase a new Mac or iPad at The Apple Store for Education and take up to $300 off MSRP. All teachers, students, and staff of any educational institution qualify for the discount. Shipping is free,... Read more

Jobs Board

*Apple* Retail - Multiple Positions (US) - A...

Sales Specialist - Retail Customer Service and Sales Transform Apple Store visitors into loyal Apple customers. When customers enter the store, you're also the
Read more

MacTech is a registered trademark of Xplain Corporation. Xplain, "The journal of Apple technology", Apple Expo, Explain It, MacDev, MacDev-1, THINK Reference, NetProfessional, Apple Expo, MacTech Central, MacTech Domains, MacNews, MacForge, and the MacTutorMan are trademarks or service marks of Xplain Corporation. Sprocket is a registered trademark of eSprocket Corporation. Other trademarks and copyrights appearing in this printing or software remain the property of their respective holders. Not responsible for typographical errors.

All contents are Copyright 1984-2011 by Xplain Corporation. All rights reserved. Theme designed by Icreon.